In The Line Of Fire
by ucferrarisgirl
Summary: Someone pays the piper after Frank has a few rather gruesome accidents


In The Line Of Fire  
  
The larger fireball rose up a hundred feet, two hundred feet towards the starry black sky. Bits and chunks of debris were hurled upwards, then the force of gravity hurtled them at dangerous speeds towards the cold black water. Whomever was on that boat was dead, either dismembered or burned beyond recognition. Fish would take care of any fleshly remains.  
  
Watching from the wharf, at a safe distance, the tall man watched as the boat was consumed by the fire. This was his handiwork, and he was proud of it. He wanted to watch the action, wanted to see the boat disintegrate before his eyes. Destruction was his passion, the bigger the destruction, the better, and his superior knew it.  
  
As he watched the huge fireball, another man stepped from the shadows around the wharf's restaurant. Keeping his footsteps light so as not to alert the other man, for he liked to appear unexpectedly, he walked up next to the tall man. Lighting a cigarette, he said,  
  
"Good work. With Donovan out of the way, our job will be easier."  
  
Taking out a letter sized manila envelope from his coat pocket, he handed it to the tall man.  
  
"Contains a first class plane ticket to Bangkok and an extra 10 grand for getting Donovan out of the way so well. Disabling the Coast Guard's cutters was genius, pure genius. And the second bomb set go to off before the first? Excellent," the other man said, puffing on his cigarette.  
  
Then the other man continued, "You leave first thing in the morning. Your contact will meet you at the other end, in Phucket, at the bar. You will wear blue shorts. Nothing else. No shoes, no shirt, no sunglasses. She will use the code words "Is it done? You will reply, "Donovan's gone," the other man said. "You will be told what to do next by the woman. Now go. Cops will be here shortly." He dragged on his cigarette and in the dim red light, he saw the tall man nodding. The tall man didn't speak a word.  
  
The tall man then opened the manila envelope to ensure the contents matched what the other man told him. The contents matched. He closed the envelope and put it into the pocket of his black trench coat. He walked off in the opposite direction from the wailing of the sirens, which came from the east, knowing they had been trying to get to the marina for the last 16 minutes and the police were still a full five minutes away resulting from the construction delays the other man had had arranged along the highway.  
  
The other man waited until the tall man was out of sight, then he disappeared behind the wharf's restaurant. He got into his car, started the car with a surprisingly silent engine and drove off. As he drove off, he touched the speed dial button on his cell phone.  
  
"Done," he told the other end of the line. There was no voice answering hello, just a phone picked up. The phone went dead. He put the phone back on the passenger seat. The man then inserted an Ella Fitzgerald compilation into the disc player and the car was filled with the sounds of "A Tisket, A Tasket" coming out of the speakers as the car silently drove through the dark, starry night.  
  
**********************  
  
A mile downriver, and on the opposite bank from the dim lights of the wharf, a dark clothed figure swam the few remaining metres to the edge of the river and pulled itself up on the muddy bank. It momentarily crouched there, with its hands on its knees, panting heavily from exertion. When it had caught its breath, the dark clothed figure stood up, and the observer-- a homeless man who'd had a bit too much cheap wine that night--noted the black clad figure was not an it, as his wine-muddled mind first insisted, but the figure was that of a man.  
  
Taking note of the homeless man, but not reacting in any way, the dark clothed man walked a ways down the muddy river bank until he could climb up the steep river bank. Once on higher ground, the dark clothed man went to his car. He pressed the code on the keylock to unlock the car. Opening the door, he reached in, and pushed the trunk release.  
  
He walked around to the trunk and took out a towel. Drying off his face, he took the cell phone from the neat pile of dry clothes he had had the foresight to put there. He planned for everything.  
  
Dialing a number, he waited for the other party to speak three words instead of hello:  
  
"We got it," the very relieved voice said.  
  
"Excellent. Good work. Donovan, out," Donovan said. Shutting off the cell phone, he proceeded to change into the dry clothes.  
  
*********  
  
Frank had noted Cody had been a little tense on this stakeout. It had shown in his voice when he'd answered Donovan's call. Of all people, Cody should have known it was Donovan on the phone. Cody had rigged the van for caller ID and had hooked Donovan's phone up. Did Cody really think Donovan could be anything but alive and kicking?  
  
But perhaps Cody wasn't thinking straight. This had been a tense stakeout, rife with danger, and the danger was placed directly on Frank's shoulders. His team had come to depend on him, had learned to trust him. But the fireballs' strength had surprised everyone, including Frank himself, who'd had to make a hasty exit through a specially constructed porthole on the side of the boat. He had found additional explosives in the boat's medicine cabinet, rigged to go off just thirty seconds after he'd found the second set of explosives. He had gone into the bathroom and splashed water on his face, then realizing he hadn't checked the medicine cabinet, he'd opened the medicine cabinet, and discovered the second set of explosives. The bomb's clock had ticked from 30 to 29 to 28 before a stunned Frank bolted.  
  
He knew full well that Monica, Alex, and Jake were also tense, and would have been very relieved, as Cody was, to hear his voice at the other end of their phone line in the van.  
  
The five had been working non-stop on surveillance of all the suspects. Jake had taken the brunt of the undercover work, alternating disguises each time a surveillance device needed to be changed and taking his biggest risk by boldy going to the ringleader's house and rummaging around in the trash. Jake had been seen by the ringleaders themselves but they had only yelled at the homeless person to get out of their trash. Alex would be leaving the country in the morning to carry out the final part of the plan.  
  
Frank had known about his potential 'demise' and had planned accordingly. The information about the crime ring's nasty Donovan-elimination plot had come from a jail stooge, a drug runner caught on a burglary charge and found to be carrying a few ounces of pot. He was looking to cut time from the starkly stiff sentencing laws which had been enacted during the Reagan years. Justice had agreed to drop a few charges in exchange for the information about the elimination plan, so long as the stooge included information on the drug ring itself.  
  
The stooge had happily complied. He was a minor runner, on the periphery of the drug ring, not a big player, unimportant. Frank had ensured the stooge knew this, and for Frank's part, he had repeated the words "unimportant," "not a big player," and "minor," to the stooge, for Frank also knew several associates of the drug ring were already in jail, and they still had some power, still had friends on the outside who could make life hard for the stooge's family.  
  
And naturally, these same people could make life hard--very hard--for the stooge while he was inside. Frank knew the stooge would be going to Attica, the worst place a con could be sent to do hard time. Certain of the crime ring's jailed associates had friends at Attica, who would be bound to make life hard for the stooge should they ever find out he leaked the crime ring's plans to Justice.  
  
This hadn't deterred the stooge. He'd been very helpful in giving the details of the planned 'execution' of Frank Donovan. Frank, for his part, had tried to listen objectively to the details of his 'death', but on the inside, his stomach was twisting. It was disconcerting to hear the details of a murder plan against you.  
  
The stooge had happily divulged to Frank all the details of the murder, plus a few details which Frank hadn't known, while the stooge was eating Orange Chicken from his favorite Chinese take out. Frank had allowed that, much to the dismay of the warden, for Frank knew non-jail food would make this particular subject more amenable to giving up the scant information he had been allowed to know--that the planned 'execution' would take place a week later.  
  
The stooge was happy because he would only have to serve around five years, and he was happy because he finally had some real food instead of the tasteless mush the jail served.  
  
Frank thought back to exactly one week ago, today.  
  
**********  
  
Theodore Metress was skinny and the food undoubtedly tasted good after a week of the barely edible food the jail served. That was why Frank had asked Theo if there was anything he could do for him, anything at all.  
  
"Food, perhaps?" Frank had asked the man, whose eyes had grown round in surprise.  
  
"Orange chicken. Fried rice. Egg rolls," the man was virtually salivating over the thought of having real food. Food from a restaurant. Frank had left the interrogation room until the food had arrived, leaving Theo alone until then. Once outside the door, Frank had turned up the thermostat regulating the temperature in the interrogation room.  
  
The food brought, Frank, with his dark eyes unwavering, was watching the man eat.  
  
"Good?" he asked the stooge.  
  
Theo bit on a large chunk of Orange Chicken, and with his mouth full, mumbled, "yeah," to Frank's query.  
  
"Give me the details of the murder. I want the time, location and who's playing," Frank had told Theo. He hadn't given Theo his name yet. He didn't want to give Theo an advantage over him. Theo knew the details about a murder plot against Franklin Donovan and Theo could use that as a bargaining chip, possibly withhold information pertinent to Frank's being able to desconstruct the murder plot against him, if he knew Frank Donovan himself was questioning him.  
  
Frank would consider telling Theo he was, in fact, Mister Franklin Donovan, potential murder victim, but he would make that consideration at the end of his and Theo's conversation.  
  
"Mmmmmhmmm. They know he's going to be on the boat next week. Frank Donovan's got a planned sailing lesson that day," Theo said after he swallowed his bite.  
  
"Who's 'they'?" Frank asked.  
  
"They. Them. Louis Carolos. Michael Hall," Theo answered, spearing another chunk of Orange Chicken.  
  
Though he didn't show it, those two names chilled Frank.  
  
For his next question, Frank chose the words, "How did Carolos and Hall know Franklin Donovan was taking a sailing lesson next week?"  
  
"From the girl at the marina. Name's Dinah. Screwed her a few weeks ago and she gave me the information about the murder plan," Theo said as he bit off a rather large chunk of egg roll. Frank saw his cheeks bulge. This gave him a few extra moments to digest the relevations Theo had just given him.  
  
Dinah was an associate of either Carolos or Hall. Or she knew someone who knew them. Frank made the mental note to have Dinah surveilled and brought in. No, he corrected himself. If she proved to be an associate, bringing her in might alert Carolos and Hall to the fact Justice--and hence, Donovan- -knew about their plans.  
  
And Donovan sorely wanted to bring in Carolos and Hall, two of Quito Real's associates. He'd waited a long, long time for this, so long that he remembered Carolos and Hall from his early days in the FBI under the watchful eyes of Agent Lynda Black.  
  
And it had been Agent Lynda Black who'd asked him if he wanted to go sailing that day. There were few people who could get to Frank, and his first boss after graduating from the Academy was one of those people. They thought alike, had gone through a lot together. Teammates. Frank had learned a lot from this formidable, strong woman. The few things she now asked of him were minor--meeting her for a drink, teaching her Krav Maga, going sailing--and he'd done what she asked of him, and found he enjoyed the activities. A chance to catch up on old times, for Lynda was retired and she now travelled the world, alone. Frank worried about her travelling alone. He knew she could take care of herself but he'd jumped at the chance to teach her Krav Maga and she had proved to be a willing and able student.  
  
So when Frank had reserved the boat for Tuesday, he'd asked the reservations clerk at the marina--who had had the name tag saying her name was 'Dinah' on her blue polo shirt--if he could pay extra to be allowed to bring the boat back much later than the stated return time of 5pm. Dinah, for her part, had been more than willing to break the rules, for an extra two days rental fee. Frank knew from the sly look in her eyes that she would pocket the extra cash.  
  
"Hey," Theo said, swallowing his chunk of egg roll, "did you know Carolos was there, in the marina's bar?" The msg in the food was having the intended effect, and Frank, while the food was being ordered and delivered, had deliberately turned up the thermostat in the room so Theo would be feeling a bit drowsy as well, and less able to resist Frank's questioning.  
  
Frank hadn't known the fact that Theo had just relayed. But he kept his composure.  
  
"Do you know what he was doing there?"  
  
"Screwing Dinah, same as me," Theo said, taking a bite of fried rice. He chewed and swallowed.  
  
Frank considered this. His earlier thoughts that Dinah knew someone who knew Carolos and Hall was almost right: it was Dinah herself who knew them. Or at least she knew Carolos.  
  
"What tipped them off to the name, Frank Donovan?" he next asked Theo.  
  
"Said Carolos knew the name from way back," Theo replied, finishing up his Orange Chicken. He wiped his mouth on the napkin. "God, that was good," he said, then belched.  
  
The corners of Frank's mouth turned down. This meant Carolos and Hall had jumped at the opportunity to eliminate Donovan. The thought must have flitted through their minds that just because Frank had abruptly quit his position as an FBI negotiator, didn't mean they were safe from him. They must also have known, through their contacts, that Frank's team had cornered Quito Real. Which meant that Frank was back in action. Bad news for them.  
  
Justice had had some idea about the drug ring Carolos and Hall ran, but they needed more information. Frank, for his part, hadn't been shy about using his real name on the boat reservations form. It had been pure chance that Dinah was screwing Carolos--one of many to do so--and like Carolos and Hall, Frank was jumping at the chance to put them away. The masterful game of psychological chess was once more being played by Frank and his opponents.  
  
"Did Carolos recognize Frank Donovan when Frank was at the reservations desk?"  
  
"No. Dinah happened to mention the name. She was excited because she snagged two days rental. So she told Carolos this man, name of Frank Donovan, had paid her two days extra rental to rent the boat past the return time," Theo said, sipping ice-cold soda through the straw. "Ohhhhhhh. Ice. I miss ice," he murmurred.  
  
"Did she give him a description of Mister Donovan?"  
  
"No. Dinah told me Carolos didn't see Frank and she'd lost her glasses so she couldn't give Carolos a clear description of the man," Theo said, taking another sip of his cold sweet soda.  
  
"Dinah is one of Carolos' regular women?"  
  
"Yeah, she does some streetwalking though. Not attached to a pimp or anything. Likes to have extra money," Theo responded.  
  
"Do you know how she met Carolos?"  
  
"She was walking her corner and he drove up. Asked her to get in. Gives her a chunk of cash every time he does her," Theo said.  
  
Again, Frank considered this game. Carolos and Hall were taking advantage of an unexpected opportunity. Frank would take advantage of Carolos and Hall. Cat and mouse. Carrot and stick. A delicate game of psychological chess played with human lives at stake.  
  
Frank switched subjects suddenly. He considered for a moment, then phrased his words with a trap,  
  
"Why was the woman taking a trip to Bermuda?"  
  
"Bangkok," Theo had corrected automatically. His eyelids were sliding downwards and he snapped them fully open.  
  
So they were dealing with international elements.  
  
"My mistake," Frank said as he looked down at the yellow pad on which he'd written some things. He picked up a pencil and wrote, "Bangkok" over the word Bermuda. Theo watched him.  
  
"She said she was going to Bangkok to go to the resort of Phucket. Got some great stuff there, I heard."  
  
"Stuff?"  
  
"Opium, heroin, cocaine," Theo said.  
  
"You been there?"  
  
"No. Wanted to go. That's why I robbed the store," Theo said. "Guess I won't be going nowhere for a long time," Theo said as his eyelids drooped once again.  
  
"Was she going to pick up some of the pot?" Frank said, putting another trap in his sentence, knowing the msg and the higher temperature was muddling Theo's thinking.  
  
"Heroin. She was going to arrange for the shipment of heroin to come here by the cargo ship Santa Lucia," Theo said through his yawn.  
  
Frank considered this response. A cargo ship, and Theo had known the name. This was more information than Frank knew Carolos and Hall to give out to a minor drug runner.  
  
His next question was off the beat, "you and Dinah have pillow talk after sex?" he asked a very sleepy Theo.  
  
"Yes," Theo responded.  
  
"She say something about the cargo ship after you had sex with her?" he next asked, motioning for another ice-filled soda to be brought to Theo.  
  
Theo saw the guard bringing the large soda, and he licked his lips. "Yes. Said Carolos told her after a particularly satisfying session in bed. He was high at the time, she said," Theo reached for the soda and took a long sip through the straw. "Ahhhhhhhhhhh," he said after he'd swallowed.  
  
Frank switched tracks again. "Did she tell you what time the 'murder' would occur?"  
  
"10:30 pm. Dinah said Frank Donovan wanted the boat overnight, until 5 am. Carolos wanted the boat to explode at 10:30 pm on Tuesday," Theo responded.  
  
"Why 10:30 pm?"  
  
"Said Frank Donovan would die at the same time he had had Quito arrested at the hospital," Theo said. "Poetic justice, she said Carolos called it."  
  
This chilled Frank, and he started pacing.  
  
"Did she tell you what Carolos told her?"  
  
"Yeah. She asked me if I understood what Carolos was going to do. Said she sure didn't. Told me this woman associate of Carolos was going to Bangkok to arrange for heroin to be on a cargo ship named Santa Lucia. Dinah rememered the name because her aunt had been named Lucia," Theo said, taking another long sip from his soda.  
  
"What did you tell her," Frank next queried.  
  
"That she'd be better off not understanding exactly what it is that Carolos does for a living."  
  
"Good response," Frank drily commented.  
  
"Yeah. She gonna get in trouble?" Theo asked. "She sure is a good lay. I'd like my cousin to use her if you're not going to arrest her or anything," Theo told Frank.  
  
Frank withheld his reaction to Theo's question and following commentary. "We'll see about Dinah later on," he said.  
  
Theo grunted in return. He finished his soda. Frank could tell by the sucking sounds as Theo tried to get the last few drops out of the large cup. He looked at Frank, his eyes hopeful there would be more forthcoming but from Frank's look he knew none would be forthcoming.  
  
"Thank you for your information. I've arranged to have you immediately transferred to Burtonsville until your trial. You'll be transferred right after I leave," Frank said.  
  
Theo looked surprised. Burtonsville, he knew, was a very small prison in a very small town nestled in the hollow of the mountains. It was a laid back prison, with laid back rules. Theo couldn't believe his good luck. Burtonsville! An easy term, at least until his trial. He started to relax, the msg in the Chinese food and the warm temperatures made him sleepy.  
  
Frank noted that. He'd known he might need further information from Theo, so he'd arranged in advance for Theo's transfer to Burtonsville, citing Witness Protection to the bristling prison warden.  
  
Frank took a last look at Theo, then left the room. He'd decided to not reveal he was, in fact, Frank Donovan, potential murder victim.  
  
****************  
  
As it had turned out, Frank hadn't needed further information from Theo, who by now, was enjoying his easy term in Burtonsville. Frank was relaxing a bit, six days after the foiled attempt on his life.  
  
On the day of his potential 'demise,' Frank had had the porthole cut into the side of the boat while he and Lynda had been enjoying their afternoon lazing on the water, drinking in the sunshine. Music had played loudly to cover the whirr of the blade as the fiberglass on the port side of the boat was cut out in a window shape. Lynda, for her part, had worn a wig and facial prosthetics to disguise herself, a precaution that Frank had her take, and it had been a wise choice.  
  
Fortunately, the small porthole had needed only the most rudimentary design: just the shape of a square, quickly cut. The job, done by double- duty Jake wearing scuba equipment, had been done in under an hour. Frank had been pleased when he'd seen the rope ladder twitch three times to indicate Jake was done.  
  
In the middle of Jake's fiberglass cutting exercise, Cody had relayed into Frank's ear that Carolos had indeed stopped by the wharf and had taken out a pair high powered binoculars to spy upon the boat in the water. He'd left after satisfying himself that it was indeed Frank, who was also wearing facial prosthetics.  
  
He'd turned his face deliberately towards the shore line. Carolos, Frank knew, was really looking for the registration number and the name of the boat: Redouble. Frank's thinking paid off. Jake said Carolos said to himself, "Good. So that's what Franklin Donovan looks like now. Looks like he had some run ins with some of my associates. His pretty face is all scarred." Frank's identity verified by the boat registration number and name, and with Frank's new face planted into Carolos' memory, Cody had informed him that Carolos had left in his car. Cody was recording and tracking the car's movements.  
  
The surveillance equipment back at the marina that Cody and Jake had set up in the dead of night had showed Carolos frequenting the marina's bar in the week since his unexpected birthday present had arrived in the form of Frank Donovan. Carolos mainly talked to Dinah, who had been more than pleased the past week. Frank had done a short sting and had arranged to drop the information to several informants about Dinah's 'availability' as a bed partner.  
  
He'd wanted to make sure Dinah couldn't wiggle out when he finally had her picked up. Seems Dinah hadn't told her parents about her 'side' job. And she was looking to 'go straight' after getting her two year technical degree in secretarial work. Her 'part-time lady' job paid her way through the technical school. She worked the marina so her parents wouldn't think twice about her income.  
  
He had gotten Lynda out of the boat soon after dark, knowing Carolos would be back in time to watch the 'fireworks' signalling the 'end' of the life of Franklin Donovan. Lynda had left through the new porthole, cutting her leg on the fiberglass. He'd taken her suggestion of putting a towel over the edge of the fiberglass. He'd then pulled up the package Jake had left weighted to the rope ladder hanging through the hastily cut porthole. It contained the things he would need later on.  
  
Frank needed to place Carolos near the scene of the planned explosion, so Frank would have to remain on the boat until the last possible minute. Cody had discovered on the sound surveillance tape that Carolos himself would be watching Frank's 'demise' with high powered binoculars and during the test runs, Frank had discovered something disturbing about the high powered binoculars Carolos would be using.  
  
Ever mindful of details, on previous Thursday night and again on Saturday, Frank had rented a boat from another marina in another city and had gone through a dry-run, using Monica in place of Lynda. He'd discovered that he would be fully visible, even to the point of Carolos being able to distinguish his facial expressions with the high powered, night vision binoculars.  
  
As an extra precaution, Frank would moor the boat further from the near shore and closer to the farther shore, for he knew he'd have to swim in cold water for at least a mile. He wasn't taking the chance Carolos might trump him by having some of his other associates planted on the other shore directly in front of the boat, just in case Frank managed to escape and swim to shore. A wounded Frank, he knew Carolos would think, would head immediately for the nearest ground. The delicate game of psychological chess never ended. So Frank had to be prepared. But the second set of explosives in the boat's medicine cabinet had frozen even Frank's blood. The bomb had been set to go off just thirty seconds from when Frank had discovered it at 10:14 pm.  
  
Alex had been sent to Bangkok, to interrogate the American woman who'd be arranging for the shipment of heroin to be placed on the cargo ship. She'd be taking the place of the American woman, who was also on the same plane unbeknownst to the tall man but known to Frank, for the woman had disguised herself cleverly and had thus provided Frank with a reason for her to be returned to American waters. Frank had gotten her name from the sound surveillance of the boat reservation's office and had discovered Carolos liked his sex hard and hot and when he got it that way, he was much more free flowing with information told to Dinah as they relaxed post-coitus in the reservation office's dressing room.  
  
The woman would be held on the pretense of visa problems, by the Thai police, who were keen to stop criminals from entering their country, and the woman's name had been placed on Interpol's Wanted for Questioning list that morning by Cody. Alex had been identified in the airline's passenger registration list as an interpreter for the United Nations travelling on UN business and would offer her skills as an interpreter to the Thai police and then be asked to have some time alone with the woman.  
  
Once Alex had the information on the Bangkok heroin supplier, they'd be able to arrest the tall man, whose identity Frank knew, for there had been just one flight leaving for Bangkok six days ago and Jake had surveilled the airport and had caught the tall man's identity on film, which Frank saw almost immediately after Jake took the picture.  
  
Frank hadn't arrested the tall man before, again because he wanted a tight- knit case against everyone in the drug ring. Funny how sometimes things worked out for the better. A bit of serendipity was playing into Frank's hands. Frank had decided against arresting the tall man at the airport. Getting down the deal in Thailand would ensure the man would be held in the notorious Thai prison system, a fate which Frank felt the tall man deserved.  
  
The tall man, after all, had, once upon a time, terrified Jenny Whitehall. The tall man's name was Zachary Taylor, and he'd been the murdered Jenny Whitehall's ex-lover. The same ex-lover whom Frank had unceremoniously evicted from Jenny's life when he'd become too much for her to handle. The one time only juvie pot convict had had a hard life since Jenny's death and had transformed into a destructive force by masterminding explosions. Frank had thought justice would be better served if Zachary served his time in a Thai prison, which were more nasty than any jail dreamed up by an American justice system.  
  
Cody had dug around in the airport's computer system and discovered the new requirements of passenger identification were working quite well. Alex had been on the same flight, working a rather tight schedule of supplanting herself in place of the contact.  
  
Frank would also arrest Dinah, Carolos and Hall, for the supplier was to receive a wire transfer from Carolos himself.  
  
Cody had monitored the cell phone in Carolos's car and had discovered the location of the other cell phone. Frank had had the addressed surveilled and sure enough, it was the residence of Carolos and sometimes residence of Michael Hall. Further surveillance revealed Carolos was not so tidy when it came to his trash, for Frank's team had discovered bank statements and from them, had figured out from which bank the money would wired to the Thai supplier.  
  
He hadn't arrested Carolos and Hall before now because he'd needed to place Carolos at the wharf when the boat exploded. He also needed an airtight case, and the wire transfer to the Thai supplier would clinch that, and Frank had needed the hard evidence from the bank's own records.  
  
**************  
  
On Thursday night, which was Friday morning in Thailand--and the time difference accounting for Alex's delay and accounting for the long plane flight over the Pacific--Frank had had a phone call from Alex. His plan had gone down right, and accordingly, Zachary was in the Thai prison system, and would be for a long, long time. Alex had heard the words for "ten years" floating amongst the Thai police.  
  
A 'computer' glitch had returned the woman to Guam. Turned out she had a similar social security number than the social security number of the woman who was 'truly' wanted. Interpol had graciously provided Thai police the proof that this particular American woman was not, in fact, wanted by America for visa problems.  
  
That little piece of sly work was Cody's responsibilty and he'd pulled it off admirably, finding out when Interpol's databases were updated. For all Frank hated anyone associated with Quito Real, or even associated with associates who were associated with Quito Real and Zachary Taylor, he hadn't wanted to see a woman enter the notorious Thai prison system. Call him a softie, but he hadn't wanted Zachary and the woman to be jailed in the same country. The two had been lovers for some time and Frank would not think of Zachary and the woman jailed in the same country. For Frank knew they'd be jailed in the same jail and for sex, Thai jail guards could be bribed by a woman to see a lover jailed in the same jail.  
  
So the Thai police had returned her via Guam, because instead of visa problems, she had been discovered to be travelling on a false passport using a false identity, a fact which Alex had noted when she had looked at the passport and then at the arrest sheet for the woman, which the woman had had to sign. She'd pointed out the discrepancy to the Thai police, who had re-checked Interpol's database. Frank had had her picked up in Guam and hosted in the territory's jail system, awaiting trial in Guam instead of the United States mainland. Her name was Kathy Ramon. She had been the girlfriend of David Ramon, who had been sentenced in conjunction with the murder of Jenny Whitehall.  
  
*********  
  
On Sunday morning, after crossing the international dateline, a very tired Alex was greeted after exiting Customs by someone she didn't expect: Frank. She had been expecting Jake to pick her up.  
  
"Excellent job, Miss Alex Cross," he said. "Let's get you home." 


End file.
